Sister Act

When you work in the shipping industry like I do, tales of missing booths and materials aren't uncommon. After all, sometimes mishaps like this just can't be avoided, and given the enormous amount of materials shipped to shows, sooner or later something is bound to go AWOL. Unfortunately for me, when I switched sides of the playing field and exhibited at a toy-industry show, my shipping mishap happened sooner than expected.

As director of business development for Partnership LLC, a Cleveland-based shipping company, I attend many trade shows looking to educate businesses on our services, including our cost-saving rewards program. While preparing for the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association's ASTRA Marketplace expo in Las Vegas in 2008, I knew I needed to bring something to catch attendees' attention at my booth. After all, ASTRA Marketplace is a toy fair, so people roaming the aisles expect fun, cool tchotchkes from the exhibitors.

Thus, I packed my materials for the show accordingly. In addition to signage and booth literature, I filled a couple of boxes with giveaways branded by FedEx Corp., one of our strategic partners. In addition to a FedEx squeeze ball, I had Matchbox cars that looked like miniature versions of the express shipper's NASCAR vehicle. And as a special giveaway, I purchased a digital picture frame to be given out via a random business-card drawing. With my "cool tchotchkes" covered, I handed off the boxes to our shipping department, which would then send them off to the show. And since someone else in our company was sending the exhibit directly to ASTRA from another show, my prep work was done - or so I thought.

The day before the show opened, I caught a flight to Vegas where I met my sister, Victoria, who planned a vacation to coincide with my work trip. We checked into the hotel, enjoyed a little Sin City entertainment, and then turned in for a good night's sleep. In the morning I was refreshed as I headed to the show hall, my sister tagging along for the fun of it. When we arrived in my 10-by-10-foot booth space, I saw that the exhibit had been delivered, so I began putting together my pop-up while I waited for the material handlers to deliver the signage, literature, and giveaways I'd sent from the home office.

But my waiting stretched on through the morning and early afternoon, and with the show scheduled to start at 4 p.m., I was getting worried. Finally, I called our office and asked for a tracking number on the boxes I had packed. My co-worker stepped away from the phone to do some checking, but when she returned, she had bad news: My boxes were still in Ohio. Worse, it was my fault.

Apparently, our typical policy of having someone from the marketing department ship boxes to trade shows had changed. I knew this change was coming, but didn't realize it had taken effect and it applied to this particular show. As of a few days ago, it was now my responsibility to send the items to Las Vegas, not the marketing department's. So the boxes I thought had been sent were still sitting in our storage area.

With the show scheduled to open in a couple of hours, I wanted to cry. I had no signage, no literature, and no giveaways. But as I prepared to throw an all-out pity party, I realized that I still had my loving sister who I hoped might help save the day.

This late in the game, I figured there was no way to drum up some cool freebies, so I decided to just focus on the critical items, such as the literature and a way to draw people to the booth. Initially, I thought I'd send my sister to locate these items while I stayed in the exhibit. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'd need to access my e-mail to obtain various literature files, and it was probably better to just let her man (or "woman") the booth while I handled the details.

Luckily, my sister had a good grasp on the marketing pitch for the show, as I'd spent the morning practicing my elevator speech on her and answering her questions about my company's show strategy. So I confidently left my sister in the barren booth and headed out to scrounge up something to show attendees.

The first things I needed were the sign-up sheets and FAQ documents for our rewards program, and locating them was simple enough. Since I had my laptop with me, I called my co-workers back home and asked them to e-mail me PDFs of the documents. I then logged in at the hotel's business center, downloaded the items, and started printing them off.

Normally at a show, we hand out literature in nice folders bearing our company colors. Looking around the business office, I also found some folders that matched our blue and green corporate hues. So I bought the folders and started stuffing them with the downloaded documents.

Next, I needed some kind of hook to lure attendees to my exhibit. So I created a series of small cards that my sister could hand out on the show floor while I chatted with attendees at the booth. On one side of the card was a picture of casino chips. On the other side was the message, "Come to booth #841, and we'll cover your gambling losses." I figured Victoria could use the cards to try and direct attendees to the booth, where I could then talk to them about how our shipping services could save them enough money to cover their gambling losses. I printed several hundred of the business-card-sized missives and then raced back to the exhibit hall with the cards and literature in hand.

When I arrived, I discovered my sister had been telling attendees how I had forgotten to ship my literature and - thanks, Victoria! - what a goof I was. She'd also told them to stop by the booth later to get in on my company's great shipping program that, she promised, was not actually run by her dingbat sister.

I reluctantly thanked my sister for making me the laughing stock of the show, handed her the cards, and told her to walk the aisles, passing them out to attendees. Of course, as she stopped to talk to people, she kept recounting the tale of my missing boxes, telling them to stop by and meet her scatterbrained sister.

Apparently, the cards and my sister's storytelling proved to be quite the hit among ASTRA Marketplace attendees. By the end of the two-day trade show, I'd collected more leads and signed up more attendees in our program than I had ever dreamed possible. Thanks to my trusty sister, my shipping company and I overcame our own shipping-related disaster.

- Tina Straw, director of business development, Partnership LLC, Cleveland